My Road to Becoming a Grooby Girl – Part 2

Note: I’m reposting a few of the posts from my old blog to my new blog.

After having failed yet again to get an offer for a job which I was extremely qualified for and after having had two really good interviews, I reached the point where I no longer felt I had any chance to get a “normal” job in mainstream society, and that it was time to take a different approach to my job search. I decided to focus on businesses where being trans was not looked upon as being a negative thing, and it soon became clear that porn was just such an industry. My initial thought was to send out letters of inquiry, along with my resume, to the various companies to see if there might be any openings for someone with my skills and experience to work on the administrative/business side of things.

Once I had decided on the industry I wanted to focus on, it was time to do some research about the business side of porn to see what was out there. But what I thought would be a seemingly easy task turned out to be more difficult than I had planned.

I was looking for information about a specific area within the porn industry, but every time I searched all I got was the usual stuff about porn sites. I finally figured out the right combination of words to use to give me better search results, but even then I had to browse through a lot of useless sites before I finally found a link to what I was looking for. I hit the jackpot when I found a directory listing all the different production companies in the adult entertainment industry. Bingo!

As I started reading through the directory, one company immediately caught my attention: Grooby Productions. The reason I was so interested in this company was because its sole business was producing trans porn, and I figured I had a better chance with them than a more mainstream company since I was trans myself. I started reading everything I could find about Grooby Productions and soon discovered that the company was started by Steven Grooby who is considered the founding father of online transgender adult entertainment and the creator of Shemale Yum, the premier pay site for trans porn. I had heard of Shemale Yum but don’t think I’d ever actually gone to the site. Although I have always enjoyed trans porn and seen plenty of it, it was always on free sites. And to be honest, I always found the term “shemale” to be very offensive. I understood that it specifically referred to trans women who worked in the porn industry, but I still felt it was demeaning to all trans women.

As I continued digging online to see what I could find about Grooby Productions, I came upon the website grooby.com and found Steven’s blog “Life in the Transsexual Adult Industry” which was a wealth of information. There were posts about a wide range of topics and it was fascinating to read and to learn about the inner-workings of the trans porn industry directly from the man who established and runs the world’s premier trans porn production company. I was really encouraged about this because this was exactly what I had been looking for and felt like perhaps there could be a potential employment opportunity with them. So I got to work revising my cover letter and resume, trying to get them just right so that I would be taken seriously and hopefully they would end up in with the right person.

While I was reading through Steven’s blog I read several posts about modeling, and more specifically, how to become a model for Grooby. As I read the posts and looked at the pictures I had a fleeting thought that maybe I should apply to be a model, just for the heck of it, but I quickly dismissed the idea because I was simply too old to be a model. And to emphasize that point, most of the models I saw pictured in the blog looked to be about the same age as my kids! So, after that momentary lapse into fantasy-land, I got back to work and finished the revisions to my cover letter and resume and then went to bed.

But as I lay in bed that night thinking about things my mind kept wandering back to the blog posts about modeling, and for whatever reason I couldn’t seem to get that out of my mind. As ridiculous as it was for me to even consider, given my age and that I was nowhere pretty enough to be a model, I eventually decided that I would go fo it! I could always tell people that I had applied to be a porn model and get a good laugh out of it!

So the next day I reread the blog posts about how to apply, and took notes, because Steven was very emphatic about following the instructions, and started putting together the required information. When I got to the part about what pictures were needed I kind of ran into a problem because I didn’t have any fully nude pictures of myself! So I got out my camera and tripod and tried to move things around in my room so I was able to get a full-length picture of myself, which proved to be quite a challenge. But I finally got things situated, stripped all my clothes off, and took a few pictures, all of which I thought looked hideous! I’d always hated to have my picture taken and never liked the way I looked, and that was with clothes on. And now I had to figure out how to take a half-way decent picture of myself fully nude, and to be okay enough with it to send it off to a total stranger to look at! That would take nothing short of a miracle! But after taking a whole lot of pictures I finally found a couple that were acceptable enough to use.

So, I composed the e-mail and attached the five photos and made absolutely sure I had all the necessary information, as Steven had emphasized several times in his blog how many model applications he received which didn’t have all the required information, and it was apparent that he had little patience for people who couldn’t follow simple directions, which I could totally relate to! And then I sat there and stared at the screen.

I had just sent the e-mail with my cover letter and resume inquiring about regular jobs, and now I worried that I might be undermining my credibility if I also applied to be a model. I tend to worry a lot and over-think things, and my mind was going full speed at that moment. I finally took a deep breath, hit the send button, and away went my e-mail to Grooby Productions. And little did I know that I had just taken the first step towards my modeling career, on August 6, 2014.

The initial excitement of applying soon wore off as I got back to my regular every-day life, and I eventually forgot about the whole modeling thing as I continued my job search and focused on the tasks at hand.

I woke up the morning of September 1st, 2014 stretched out on a bed at my friend’s house after spending the night there (which is also an interesting story but one I should probably keep to myself!) and was watching the sunrise through the trees, just feeling very happy and content. I grabbed my phone to check my messages and saw I had received an e-mail from someone named from Steven, which I opened and read the following:

Thanks Rebecca and sorry for the late reply, I’ve forwarded to our closest photographer who should be in touch soon.

Regards

Steven

I then scrolled further down to see the original message and saw the subject line which read “Model App” and the person it was addressed to: Steven Grooby. It took a minute for my brain to process everything and to realize that the e-mail was from Steven Grooby informing me that my model application had been accepted and that I would be doing a modeling shoot for Shemale Yum!

To say I was shocked would be an understatement! But then it started to sink in that I had actually been accepted as a model for the most successful and prestigious online trans porn site, and I couldn’t help but smile and feel pretty darn happy! I never, ever imagined that I would be doing modeling work, let alone be doing it for a porn site! I couldn’t stop smiling, and couldn’t wait for my friend to wake up so I could tell her! As I lay in bed watching the sun rise my mind was going a million miles a minute, but the overriding emotion I felt was happiness and excitement at getting this opportunity and where it could potentially lead. There was no way I could have foreseen what lay ahead for me and the amazing adventure I was about to embark on. All I knew right then and there was that it felt really good to know that Steven Grooby thought I was pretty enough to be a model, and how proud I was of myself for doing something completely outside the box and outside of my comfort zone.

I spent that morning lying in bed soaking it all in and smiling a whole lot!

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4 comments

Bob C.

Greetings Becca. My name is Bob. I’m a follower of yours on Twitter (@BobCongdon51). Thanks for the great story, and a belated welcome to Oregon. I’ve been here since ’94 and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else, now that I’m in my later years. You’re lovely and intelligent and I hope that I get to meet you someday. It will be a pleasure. Until then, all the very best to you.

Hi Bob, it’s a pleasure to meet you, and thank you for reading the blog and for your comment! As much as I hated to, I moved from Portland two months ago and now live in Los Angeles. I really miss Portland and my friends there, and I know I’ll be back at some point, but for now his is where I need to be. Thank you for your kind words, they are very much appreciated, and next time I get back to Portland we’ll have to meet and say hello! 🙂

*hugs*
Bcca

Bob C.

I guess Los Angeles is probably a more advantageous place for you to live given the work you want to do. All the luck in the world in California Becca, and if you ever make it back to the rose city, I hope we can meet. Bye for now.

Thanks for the comment Bob! I’m actually more focused now on writing and being a positive voice in the trans community, and not so much on the modeling, although I still enjoy doing beach and fashion shoots. And since Los Angeles is the epicenter of the LGBT community this is a perfect location for me in that respect. But my heart will always be in Portland 🙂